Genesis 11:26

Amplified Bible

After Terah had lived seventy years, he became the father of Abram and Nahor and Haran [his firstborn].

Parallel Translations

English Standard Version
When Terah had lived 70 years, he fathered Abram, Nahor, and Haran.

Update Bible Version
And Terah lived seventy years, and begot Abram, Nahor, and Haran.

New Century Version
After Terah was 70 years old, his sons Abram, Nahor, and Haran were born.

New English Translation
When Terah had lived 70 years, he became the father of Abram, Nahor, and Haran.

Webster's Bible Translation
And Terah lived seventy years, and begat Abram, Nahor, and Haran.

World English Bible
Terah lived seventy years, and became the father of Abram, Nahor, and Haran.

Wycliffe Bible (1395)
And Thare lyuede seuenti yeer, and gendride Abram, and Nachor, and Aran.

Young's Literal Translation
And Terah liveth seventy years, and begetteth Abram, Nahor, and Haran.

Berean Standard Bible
When Terah was 70 years old, he became the father of Abram, Nahor, and Haran.

Contemporary English Version
After Terah was seventy years old, he had three sons: Abram, Nahor, and Haran, who became the father of Lot. Terah's sons were born in the city of Ur in Chaldea, and Haran died there before the death of his father. The following is the story of Terah's descendants.

Complete Jewish Bible
Terach lived seventy years and fathered Avram, Nachor and Haran.

American Standard Version
And Terah lived seventy years, and begat Abram, Nahor, and Haran.

Bible in Basic English
And Terah was seventy years old when he became the father of Abram, Nahor, and Haran.

Bishop's Bible (1568)
Tarah liued seuentie yeres, and begat Abram, Nachor, and Haran.

Darby Translation
And Terah lived seventy years, and begot Abram, Nahor, and Haran.

Easy-to-Read Version
After Terah was 70 years old, his sons Abram, Nahor, and Haran were born.

JPS Old Testament (1917)
And Terah lived seventy years, and begot Abram, Nahor, and Haran.

King James Version (1611)
And Terah liued seuenty yeeres, and begate Abram, Nahor, & Haran.

King James Version
And Terah lived seventy years, and begat Abram, Nahor, and Haran.

New Life Bible
When Terah had lived seventy years, he became the father of Abram, Nahor and Haran.

New Revised Standard
When Terah had lived seventy years, he became the father of Abram, Nahor, and Haran.

J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
And Terah lived seventy years, - and begat Abram, Nahor, and Haran.

Geneva Bible (1587)
So Terah liued seuentie yeeres, and begate Abram, Nahor, and Haran.

George Lamsa Translation
And Terah lived seventy-five years, and begot Abram, manor, and Haran.

Good News Translation
After Terah was 70 years old, he became the father of Abram, Nahor, and Haran.

Douay-Rheims Bible
And Thare lived seventy years, and begot Abram, and Nachor, and Aran.

Revised Standard Version
When Terah had lived seventy years, he became the father of Abram, Nahor, and Haran.

Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
And Tharrha lived seventy years, and begot Abram, and Nachor, and Arrhan.

English Revised Version
And Terah lived seventy years, and begat Abram, Nahor, and Haran.

Christian Standard Bible®
Terah lived 70 years and fathered Abram, Nahor, and Haran.

Hebrew Names Version
Terach lived seventy years, and became the father of Avram, Nachor, and Haran.

Lexham English Bible
When Terah had lived seventy years, he fathered Abram, Nahor, and Haran.

Literal Translation
And Terah lived seventy years and fathered Abram, Nahor, and Haran.

Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
Terah was seuentie yeare olde, and begat Abram, Nahor and Haran.

THE MESSAGE
When Terah was seventy years old, he had Abram, Nahor, and Haran.

New American Standard Bible
Terah lived seventy years, and fathered Abram, Nahor, and Haran.

New King James Version
Now Terah lived seventy years, and begot Abram, Nahor, and Haran.

New Living Translation
After Terah was 70 years old, he became the father of Abram, Nahor, and Haran.

New American Standard Bible (1995)
Terah lived seventy years, and became the father of Abram, Nahor and Haran.

Legacy Standard Bible
And Terah lived 70 years and became the father of Abram, Nahor, and Haran.

Contextual Overview

¹⁰These are the records of the generations of Shem [from whom Abraham descended]. Shem was a hundred years old when he became the father of Arpachshad, two years after the flood. ¹¹And Shem lived five hundred years after Arpachshad was born, and he had other sons and daughters. ¹²When Arpachshad had lived thirty-five years, he became the father of Shelah. ¹³Arpachshad lived four hundred and three years after Shelah was born, and he had other sons and daughters. ¹⁴When Shelah had lived thirty years, he became the father of Eber. ¹⁵Shelah lived four hundred and three years after Eber was born, and he had other sons and daughters. ¹⁶When Eber had lived thirty-four years, he became the father of Peleg. ¹⁷And Eber lived four hundred and thirty years after Peleg was born, and he had other sons and daughters. ¹⁸When Peleg had lived thirty years, he became the father of Reu. ¹⁹And Peleg lived two hundred and nine years after Reu was born, and he had other sons and daughters.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

am 1948, bc 2056

Abram: Genesis 12:4, Genesis 12:5, Genesis 22:20-24, Genesis 29:4, Genesis 29:5, Joshua 24:2, 1 Chronicles 1:26, 1 Chronicles 1:27

Reciprocal: Genesis 11:31 - took

Cross-References

Genesis 11:4
They said, "Come, let us build a city for ourselves, and a tower whose top will reach into the heavens, and let us make a [famous] name for ourselves, so that we will not be scattered [into separate groups] and be dispersed over the surface of the entire earth [as the LORD instructed]."

Genesis 11:5
Now the LORD came down to see the city and the tower which the sons of men had built.

Genesis 11:20
When Reu had lived thirty-two years, he became the father of Serug.

Genesis 11:24
When Nahor had lived twenty-nine years, he became the father of Terah.

Genesis 11:26
After Terah had lived seventy years, he became the father of Abram and Nahor and Haran [his firstborn].

Genesis 11:27
Now these are the records of the descendants of Terah. Terah was the father of Abram (Abraham), Nahor, and Haran; and Haran was the father of Lot.

Joshua 24:2
Joshua said to all the people, "This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says, 'Your fathers, including Terah, the father of Abraham and the father of Nahor, lived beyond the [Euphrates] River in ancient times; and they served other gods.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

And Terah lived seventy years, and begat Abram, Nahor, and Haran. Abram, though named first, does not appear to be the eldest, but rather Haran; nay, it seems pretty plain that Abram was not born until the one hundred and thirtieth year of his father's life, for Terah was two hundred and five years old when he died, Genesis 11:32 and Abram was but seventy five years of age when he went out of Haran to Canaan, Genesis 12:4 and that was as soon as his father died there; and so that if seventy five are taken out two hundred and five, there will remain one hundred and thirty, in which year and not before Abram must be born: the wife of Terah, of whom Abram was born, according to the Jewish writers x, her name was Chamtelaah, the daughter of Carnebo, or as others y call her, Amthalai; but by the Arabic writers z she is called Juna: the Jews say a Terah was the first that found out the way of coining money, and that in his days men began to worship images, and that he was the chief of their priests, but afterwards repented; and that he was an idolater appears from Joshua 24:2.

x Shalshalet Hakabala, fol. 2. 1. & Bathra in ib. y Pirke Eliezer, c. 26. z Elmacinus, p. 31. Patricides, p. 17. apud Hottinger. p. 281. a Shalshalet, fol. 76. 1.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

- Section IX - The Line to Abram

- XXXV. The Line of Abram

18. רעוּ re‛û, Re‘u, “friend;” verb: “feed, delight in, enjoy.”

20. שׂרוּג śerûg, Serug, “vine-shoot.”

22. נחור nāchôr, Nachor, “snorting.”

24. תרה terach, Terach, “delay?” Aramaic.

26. אברם 'abrām, Abram, “high father.” הרן hārān Haran, “mountaineer.”

The usual phrase, “These are the generations,” marks the beginning of the fifth document. Accordingly, we now enter upon a new phase of human development. The nations have gradually departed from the living God. They have not, however, stopped at this negative stage of ungodliness. They have fallen into polytheism and idolatry. And the knowledge of the one true God, the Maker, Possessor, and Upholder of heaven and earth, is on the verge of being entirely lost. Nevertheless the promises, first to the race of Adam, that the seed of the woman should bruise the serpent’s head, and next to the family of Noah, that the Lord should be the God of Shem, were still in force. It is obvious, from the latter promise, that the seed of the woman is to be expected in the line of Shem.

The present passage contains the pedigree of Abram from Shem. From this it appears that the sacred writer here reverts to the second year after the flood - a point of time long before the close of the preceding narrative. “Shem was the son of a hundred years,” or in his hundredth year, two years after the flood, and therefore in the six hundred and third year of Noah, and consequently three years after Japheth. Abram was the twentieth, inclusive, from Adam, the tenth from Shem, and the seventh from Heber. A second Kenan is inserted after Arpakshad in the Septuagint, and in the Gospel according to Luke. But this name does not occur even in the Septuagint in 1 Chronicles 1:24, where the genealogy of Abram is given. It is not found in the Samaritan Pentateuch, the Targums, or the ancient versions. It does not appear in Josephus or Philo. Neither is it found in the Codex Bezae in the Gospel of Luke. It must therefore be regarded as an interpolation.

The following table is a continuation of that given at the fifth chapter, and will serve for the comparison of the different forms in which the numbers are presented:

Line of Abram
	Hebrew			Sam. Pent.			Septuagint			Josephus		Date
		Son's Birth	Own Death		Son's Birth	Own Death		Son's Birth	Own Death		Son's Birth		Own Death	Of Birth	Of Death
11. Shem		(97) 2	600		(97) 2	600		(97) 2	600		(97) 12			1559	2150
12. Arpakshad (Καινᾶν)		35	438		135	438		135	535		135			1658	2096
13. Shelah		30	433		130	433		130	460		130			1693	2126
14. Heber		34	464		134	404		134	404		134			1723	2187
15. Peleg		30	239		130	239		130	339		130			1757	1996
16. Reu		32	239		132	239		132	339		130			1787	2096
17. Serug		30	230		130	230		130	330		132			1819	2049
18. Nahor		29	148		79	148		175	304		120			1849	1997
19. Terah (Haran)		70 60	205		70 60	145		70 60	205		70 292		205	1878	2083
20. Abram cd. Enters Ken.		70	75		70	75		70	75		130		75	2008	2078
Sum		422			1072			1302			422
D. of Flood		1656			1307			2262			2256
D. of Call		2078			2379			3564			2678

From this table it appears that in the total years of life the Hebrew, Samaritan, and Septuagint agree on Shem; the Hebrew and Septuagint on Terah; the Samaritan and Septuagint on Heber; and the Hebrew and Samaritan on all the rest. In regard, however, to the years of paternity, the Hebrew stands alone, against the Samaritan and Septuagint agreeing, except in Terah, where they all agree. The difference is not in units or tens, but in the addition to the Hebrew numbers of a hundred years, except in the case of Nahor, where the addition is fifty years, or a hundred and fifty according to the Codex Vaticanus (B) of the Septuagint. Here, again, it is remarkable that Josephus while agreeing with the Samaritan and Septuagint in most of the separate numbers before paternity, agrees with the Hebrew in the sum of years from the flood to the 70th year of Terah (292 years, Josephus I. 6, 5). In Reu and Serug the numbers are transposed, seemingly by a mistake arising from the inverted order in which he gives the numbers.

In Nahor he, or his transcriber, seems to have added one hundred years according to the uniform law, and neglected the nine. To make up for this omission, the inexact round number 10 has been apparently added to the number of years after the flood, when Arpakshad was born. We have already noticed that some MSS. of Josephus gave 1656 as the sum-total of years from the creation to the flood, in which case the sums of Josephus and the Hebrew exactly agree. We find him also stating (viii. 3, 1) that the world was created 3102 years before Solomon began to build the temple, and that the deluge took place 1440 before the same point of time. Hence, we obtain 1662 years between the creation and the deluge; and this, if we only deduct from it the six years added to Lamek, agrees with the Hebrew. In the same passage he states that the entrance of Abram into Kenaan was 1020 years before the building of the temple.

Hence, we infer that 420 years elapsed from the flood to the call of Abram, which, if we count from the birth of Arpakshad, allow sixty years to elapse between the births of Haran and Abram, and date the call of Abram at 70, will exactly tally with the Hebrew. These sums cannot in any probable way be reconciled with the details in his own text, or in the Septuagint, or Samaritan. Again, Josephus calculates (x. 8, 5) that the temple was burnt 3513 years from the creation, and 1957 from the flood. Hence, the interval from the creation to the deluge would be 1556 years, differing from the Hebrew by 100 years, and reconcilable with it, if we suppose the 500th year of Noah to be the terminating date. He also concludes that the burning of the temple took place 1062 years after the exodus, thus making the interval from the flood to the exodus 895 years, while the Hebrew makes it 852. If we reckon the 100 years from the 500th year of Noah to the flood, the 292 which Josephus gives from the flood to the birth of Abraham, the 75 years to the call of Abraham, and the 430 from that to the exodus, we have 897 years, which will be reduced to Josephus’s number by omitting the 2 years from the flood to the birth of Arpakshad; and to the Hebrew number by omitting the 100 years before the flood, adding the 60 between Haran and Abram, which Josephus here neglects, and dating the call of Abram at 70 years. But by no process that we are aware of can these calculated numbers of Josephus be reconciled with the details of his own text, or the Samaritan, or Septuagint. It seems perfectly clear that the Hebrew numbers lie at the basis of these calculations of our author.

The age of paternity in the Samaritan from Peleg down is beyond the middle age of life, which is contrary to all experience. The editor of the Septuagint seems to have observed this anomaly, and added 100 years to three of these lives, and 156 to that of Nahor, against the joint testimony of the Hebrew and Samaritan. If the year of paternity in the Vatican be the correct reading, a much greater number should have been here added. The Samaritan deducts 60 years from the age of Terah, against the joint testimony of the Hebrew, Samaritan, and Josephus, seemingly because the editor conceived that Abram was born in his seventieth year.

From the Targum of Onkelos and the Peshito it is evident that the Hebrew text was the same as now up to the Christian era. Before that time there was no conceivable reason for shortening the chronology, while national vanity and emulation might easily prompt men to lengthen it. It is acknowledged that the text of the Septuagint is inferior to that of the Hebrew.

The age of puberty in the Hebrew affords more scope for the increase of population than that in the other texts. For if a man begin to have a family at thirty, it is likely to be larger than if he began a hundred years later and only lived the same number of years altogether. Now the Hebrew and Samaritan agree generally, against the Septuagint, in the total years of life; and in two instances, Heber and Terah, the Samaritan has even a less number than the Hebrew. It is to be remembered, also, that the number of generations is the same in every case. Hence, in all human probability the Hebrew age of paternity will give the greater number of inhabitants to the world in the age of Abram. If we take the moderate average of five pairs for each family, we shall have for the estimated population 4 X 5(to the 9th power) pairs, or 15,625,000 souls. This number is amply sufficient for all the kingdoms that were in existence in the time of Abram. If we defer the time of becoming a father for a whole century, we shall certainly diminish, rather than increase, the chance of his having so large a family, and thereby the probability of such a population on the earth in the tenth generation from Noah.

In these circumstances we are disposed to abide by the Hebrew text, that has descended to us in an original form, at least until we see some more cogent reasons for abandoning any of its numbers than chronologers have yet been able to produce. And we content ourselves, meanwhile, with the fact that the same system of numbers manifestly lay at the basis of all our present texts, though it may be difficult in some cases to determine to the satisfaction of all what was the original figure. The determination of the chronology of ancient history is neither a question of vital importance, nor, to us now, a part of the primary or direct design of the Hebrew records.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Genesis 11:26. And Terah lived seventy years, and begat Abram, Nahor, and Haran. — Haran was certainly the eldest son of Terah, and he appears to have been born when Terah was about seventy years of age, and his birth was followed in successive periods with those of Nahor his second, and Abram his youngest son. Many have been greatly puzzled with the account here, supposing because Abram is mentioned first, that therefore he was the eldest son of Terah: but he is only put first by way of dignity. An in stance of this we have already seen, Genesis 5:32, where Noah is represented as having Shem, Ham, and Japheth in this order of succession; whereas it is evident from other scriptures that Shem was the youngest son, who for dignity is named first, as Abram is here; and Japheth the eldest, named last, as Haran is here. Terah died two hundred and five years old, Genesis 11:32; then Abram departed from Haran when seventy-five years old, Genesis 12:4; therefore Abram was born, not when his father Terah was seventy, but when he was one hundred and thirty.

When any case of dignity or pre-eminence is to be marked, then even the youngest son is set before all the rest, though contrary to the usage of the Scriptures in other cases. Hence we find Shem, the youngest son of Noah, always mentioned first; Moses is mentioned before his elder brother Aaron; and Abram before his two elder brethren Haran and Nahor. These observations are sufficient to remove all difficulty from this place.